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High-Risk Pregnancy
heie0008
member
Birth story (induction) with Type 1 diabetes
heie0008
member
I was induced at 39 weeks and 3 days due to diabetes concerns. The baby also had a single umbilical artery (2 vessel cord). The great part about this story is that they let me do all my own blood sugar testing the whole day plus administer my own insulin (I'm on multiple injections). I didn't need an IV for glucose or insulin drip! Yay! We were able to manage my sugars testing every hour or so and bringing them up with apple juice (the nurses did it in secret since I wasn't supposed to eat after getting an epidural). My blood sugars stayed between 80-140 the whole time.
We arrived at the hospital at 6:00 am to start the induction. It took 3 tries to get an IV placed for the IV penicillin, which really hurt so I thought if I can barely handle getting in IV placed how is the rest of the day going to go?! They checked me before they started and I was finger-tip dilated and about 30% effaced. They placed the cytotec pill at 6:45 and I had to lie completely on my side for 1 hour. After that I could walk around, so I paced around the room and my husband and I walked the halls a couple times. At 10:45 I was 1 ? cm dilated. They placed another cytotec pill at around 11:20. The OB came in to check my cervix at 12:55 and at that time I was getting more cramps. I was 2 ? centimeters dilated so he broke my water to start my contractions. They also placed a monitor on the baby?s head. I started having contractions that were about 2 minutes apart and but not very strong. Since I had so many monitors attached to me, I mostly paced back and forth by the side of the bed.
At 2:50 they decided to start the Pitocin, I was about 3 centimeters and I was 70% effaced. My contractions needed to be stronger in order for me to dilate. I decided just to get the epidural right away before the Pitocin really kicked in. I got it placed at 3:40. The whole procedure was actually pretty quick and not painful at all. When she was placing it though a ?zing? went down my right side. The anesthesiologist asked which side that occurred on and she said the cath will sometimes go to one side so they had me lay on my left to get the meds to go to that side. The epidural worked pretty well for a while but not as well on the left side.
I was checked again at 4:40 and I was 3 ? centimeters and 90% effaced. It felt like the whole process was taking a long time and I was getting frustrated. At 5:35 I was checked again and I was 4 centimeters. At around this time I began to be able to feel the contractions only on my left side with severe left back pain. The anesthesiologist came back and gave me a boost of meds and upped my epidural rate which helped a little. They also had me lay down flat and lean to the left again to help the medicine move that way. They decided to place a urinary catheter since it was obvious this was going to take a while.
At 6:55 they had to decrease the Pitocin since the contractions were coming on too fast (if they are too close together they don?t dilate effectively). I was right around this time that it became obvious that my epidural was not working on the left side at all. Also the baby?s heart rate was starting to dip, so they had me lay on the right and left sides with an oxygen mask to see if that would help. Baby?s heart rate did improve but I was in severe pain. The contractions were so painful but I really worked at relaxing and breathing through them. My husband was super supportive. I didn?t want any more meds since the baby was struggling a bit and the anesthesiologist didn?t really help last time I complained so I decided to stick it out. At least my right side still was pretty numb.
They checked me again a little after 7:00 and I was at 7 centimeters (at first they told me I was at 10 and I could push soon but they had me flip to my other side and felt some thin cervix still there). At about 8:30 I was finally found to be 10 centimeters. I was able to do a few practice pushes with the nurse. It felt really good to push and I was glad I could at least feel some of my body. I pushed through 2 contractions and they had me stop. The head was really low and they could see her hair, but her heart rate was not doing well when I pushed. So they called the OB and said he would be there in 10 minutes. The wait was terrible! I really wanted to push and the contractions were so painful. I had a ton of pressure. The OB finally arrived and they set everything up and they let me start to push at 8:47, I pushed through a couple contractions and baby did not tolerate them well. So the OB had me stop and rest while he gave me some local anesthetic. At first he said he would use a vacuum but then decided to use forceps to get her out. I pushed through 2 more contractions with the forceps and she was out at 9:14 pm! She weighed in at 6 lbs and 6 oz and was 19 ? inches long. (They estimated her to weight 7 lbs 3 oz last week so they were obviously not correct with the scan). They laid her on me right away and the OB said ?don?t worry she?s fine? but they decided to take her to the warmer right away to get her checked out and cleaned up. She tolerated the whole thing very well and her Apgar ended up being 8. I had some minor tearing with one tear that actually went up into the cervix. So I only have some stitches on each side. The OB said it was a good thing she ended up being so small since he had to use forceps.
The baby's blood sugar did drop once and they used formula to bring it up but they let her stay with us the whole time. Taking the formula doesn't seem to have affected her ability to nurse!
Anyway, she is perfect and we are in love!!
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Re: Birth story (induction) with Type 1 diabetes
Congratulations!! It's truly a beautiful story (and a beautiful baby!)... I'm DT1 also, and am super scared, I've heard terrible stuff about babies getting heart problems, or deformities, I don't know, I guss I'm just scared of everything... I can't seem to control 100% my levels, how were your sugar controls at first (I'm 7 weeks)?
And once again, congratulations!!
DD1 Feb 2010
DD2 Sept 2011
My blood sugar control at first was ALL OVER THE PLACE...I would go super low and then rebound in the 200's to 300's...but I corrected all the time. I tested over 10 times a day so I would never stay that high for very long. My A1c's were tested monthly and they ranged from 5.5-6.3.
From what other people have told me it tends to be the very prolonged high blood sugars that cause problems...if you catch them early and correct them they shouldn't cause baby any problems.
I had a follow up question for you... Are you breastfeeding? (it sounds like you are but wanted to ask more questions about it since I want to breastfeed too) Does it cause you low blood sugars? Are you having to supplement with formula for that? What are the doctors telling you about breastfeeding?
Your story brought a tear to my eye when I read it. It made me so happy! Congratulations again! And thank you for sharing. It's helping me get through this pregnancy.
I am breastfeeding. My milk just came in yesterday (thank god!).
My endo suggested going to back to my pre-pregnancy doses of insulin for after the baby was born but my blood sugars keep dropping like crazy. So I keep lowering my own doses (my endo pretty much knows I do what I want with my insulin anyway haha). I'm down to about 3/4 my pre-pregnancy insulin now and am still adjusting.
We aren't using any formula to supplement for baby. If I have a lower blood sugar while feeding her my husband just brings me a snack to bring it up and I keep on feeding her through it. It's only happened twice and it's not that fun since I get so hot and shaky while I'm holding her.
Good Luck! (I'd be happy to answer any more questions if you have them). I was terrified about having a baby with type 1 diabetes too but there are many many success stories out there! You can do it!
That is such good news! I was reading the Pre-existing diabetes and pregnancy book and the author mentioned how she was unable to breastfeed since the baby was not getting enough food from her (I'd guess due to the lows that go along with that) so I was fearful of that happening.
I am with you on the changing of insulin on my own... Us long-term type 1s know what to do and when we gotta do it. Though I have needed help with the pregnancy, but I'm figuring it out.
I'm so afraid of trying to feed the baby with a low blood sugar for fears that I might drop the LO or something! I had a feeling that it would be more like to beginning of the pregnancy with the lows so now I can prepare myself for that.
I'm so so so happy for you! I know I'll have more questions but who knows when I'll have them... Most of the time I've figured it out with the help of the book and the diabetes nurses who have been tracking my blood sugars with me and helping me adjust insulin as needed (only if I'm comfortable with it of course).
Thank you! And again, congratulations!!